Gold Stocks Climb Epic Wall Of Worry

 | Apr 22, 2016 02:57PM ET

The gold stocks have had a tremendous rally in recent months that has left most investors and even gold bulls on the sidelines. From low tick to high tick Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners (NYSE:GDXJ) has more than doubled while Market Vectors Gold Miners (NYSE:GDX) has nearly doubled. Indices such as the HUI and XAU have more than doubled. It has been a fantastic rally yet both anecdotal and actual data suggests there has been a major wall of worry building. Although gold stocks may be starting a correction, the presence of a strong wall of worry provides further confirmation of a major trend change.

In recent weeks readers and followers of various gold-centric websites have been bombarded with bearish commentaries from pundits and analysts forecasting a correction. More than a month ago the reasoning was the commitment of traders (CoT) report. More recently, the reasoning revolved around an alleged “parabolic move” in the gold stocks and a budding head and shoulders top in Gold.

On Friday Bloomberg published an excellent article calling the rally one of a lifetime yet also noting that investors have completely missed it. GDX is up more than 65% year to date but gold miner ETFs have seen half a billion in outflows. According to SentimenTrader, the majority of the outflows occurred after February 19 yet GDX has climbed since then. Furthermore, and I’m not sure how actionable this is but on February 19 StockTwits sentiment for GDX showed only 19% bears. A few days ago bears were at 52%. Most investors have grown more bearish even as miners have continued to rally!

The fact is when a devastating bear market finally gives way to a new bull most investors and even those with a bullish bias are either outright incredulous or simply decide to wait for the inevitable correction. The problem is the correction never comes or when it does come, it is smaller than expected and the buying opportunity evaporates quickly and instantly. For those who are incredulous, their mindset is simply stuck in the previous bear as they have not accepted the new bull market.

Take a look at our chart of the HUI bull analogs. Does the recent rebound look like a bear market rally to you?